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Monday, 24 June 2013

Slightly unrelated photo, but this is myself, on the top of Monument, taken by my lovely friend Leigh!

Once again I am a contender for the world's most original blogposter. I'm also up for the metaphorical award for 'bad blogger of the week' for missing my typical posting days last week of Sunday and Wednesday. I had good reason to, interning at Oxford University Press as well as helping out at my local theatre company, Creation Theatre, who are currently doing a stint of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in Oxford's famous Blackwells Bookshop. I probably don't need to say how excellent it is and how wonderfully creative Creation theatre are, but hell, I've said it anyway, and I'll say it again, countless times. It's a wonderful show with lots of lovely people working on it, so if you're ever in the Oxford area this June or July, I'd heartily suggest going to see it.
With my long working days, I've been unable to do an outfit post this week, but I took this as an oppurtunity to do a post I've wanted to do for a while. I read a lot of blogs and social media articles, and am fortunate enough to come across many wonderful things in my exploration of the internet, and I would like to be able to share them with my lovely readers on a weekly basis. They can be anything from particularly inspired outfit posts, wonderous tutorials, or perhaps a particularly topical and interesting article, or a wonderful thing that is happening in the world right now. I'm going to link them down below for your viewing pleasure, and I hope very much that you gain the same inspiration as what they were able to give me. Enjoy!:

Sunday, 16 June 2013

The alternative title of this post is 'I'll walk around one street posing and stand up against lamposts and postboxes meaningfully.' This is a post that I had been planning on doing for a very long time. I am fortunate enough to live close to some lovely looking streets in London, and ones that were just begging to be used as the location for an outfit post. Usually the thought of strutting my blogging stuff in front of the general public is enough to make me feel a bit ill, but seemingly in London, everybody has seen it before. London is a bit of an obstacle course of street stylers and fashion bloggers, with various blog owners forming orderly queues to take photos by London telephone boxes or walking about the absolute streetstyler's dream that is Somerset house. If you're going to dress to impress anywhere, then London is the place to do it. On Saturday morning, my wonderful photographer/flatmate/bad bitch Luke and myself walked over to take some pictures of me, running into an array of confused dogwalkers, football players and fleeting onlookers. On to our masterful outfit post shooting on location...

Cape - New Look (via charity shop)

This cape was such an incredible find. Nestled between the racks of the one charity shop in my home village, it was just £5 and brand new with tags. I haven't really had the chance to wear it due to practicality and the threat of bad Red Riding Hood jokes, but I don't think this outfit would be made without it.

Dress - SheinsideThe minute I saw this dress I knew I needed it. It is from Sheinside, a really good international store that does a lot of very on trend clothes and designer inspired clothes. This seems to be a duplicate of a Moschino dress. It's one of the funnest dresses to wear, it's super colourful, silky and very conventionally London.

Shoes - Jeffrey Campbell

I'm not usually a fan of high heeled shoes. They are super uncomfortable for me and being tall as I am I don't feel good towering over everyone to that extent. These Jeffrey Campbellshoes, however, are ones that I can make an exception for. They are red suede wedges, and they are absolutely beautiful. I picked them up for £40 in the office sale many moons ago, I couldn't afford any Jeffrey Campbells full price, although I would absolutely love a pair of Coltranes. Dream on, Bel.

Once again a huge thank you to Luke for taking these pictures for me, please check out his food blog Chew Kamu. We are blogging buddies so his gain is my gain too.

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

School uniforms have always been something that I'm interested in. I think it reflects my relentless obsession with fashion from a young age, that I would critique my own uniform, and envy all the private students I would see in Oxford after school with their crest adorned blazers and knee high socks. My own uniform I felt was sub par, looking more like something a prison inmate would wear than a proper regulation uniform. My desire for a old school, um 'school' uniform has extended from my obsession with boarding school stories as a child, and hasn't really died down despite not even being able to call myself a teenager anymore. Still I longed for a proper blazer, the kind that wouldn't let the cold in and held on to the smell of particularly mediocre lunches served by scowling dinner ladies. And fortunately, I eventually found it, in a dusty corner of one of Edinburgh's most well known vintage shops - Armstrongs. This blazer is from an Aberdeen boy's academy, and finding it was comparable to finding the holy grail. Probably. Anyway, on with the outfit post, and I can only imagine, a host of unconvincing school based puns...Scrunchie - EbayJacket - Armstrongs VintageTop - OliveLeggings - American Apparel via Ebay (I've linked the original)Socks - Primark (top marks if you noticed Psy rather haphazardly chilling on one of my socks)Shoes - Russell and Bromley via charity shop (or the most exciting charity shop find of my life)Bag - 16' Zatchels
I also wanted to draw attention to my riding pants (and not my crotch as the picture might suggest), a bargain find on ebay. I'd wanted them for a while in the henna colour, and I can honestly say they are one of the comfiest pair of leggings I own. I absolutely adore the colour too, although I sense I might have been told off if I actually ever wore these as a uniform. They do however, help me channel my idol, Iggy Azalea who wears them to perfection in the 'Pussy' video. Of course, I could never compete, but hey, I can't help but try!When I proudly proclaimed this morning to my flatmates that I would be doing an outfit post involving scrunchies, i.e the new trend for Summer, they, understandably, were underwhelmed. But I am pretty excited for this trend, reminding me again, of my childhood, where I would often have a host of coloured scrunchies to choose from on a typical grey school morning. There's something quite fun about them, keeping your hair out of your face but also adding an injection of colour. Here I went for a forest green to match my blazer. I ordered them off of ebay, as I've noticed they're now being sold for about £5 each on the highstreet, considerably more than my pocket money would have stretched to in the good ol' days.

Saturday, 8 June 2013

Considering my usual personal style, I wouldn't typically think that I myself would title a post 'Neon Americana.' I have to admit that I shuddered a little when neon came into fashion a few seasons back, offending my usual colour palate of Black, purple, and maybe a bit of red if I'm feeling extra 'chirpy.' But funnily enough, I've rather warmed to colour recently, demonstrated in no small terms by my post below. For today I decided to go all out on colourful, pairing head to toe Primark (or in this case, neck to toe) with my beanie. I really like how it goes with my hair too, and I feel the look is sort of 50's, which certainly takes me back to endless reruns of my Grease VHS as a child. I definitely wanted to be Rizzo but probably ended up a bit of a Sandra Dee, ah well.

Primark are pretty amazing for finding very seasonal stuff, namely this skirt, one I'd been searching for for ages in pursuit of a car print garment (hello again, Spring/Summer 2012). It's perfect for a crop top as it's super high waisted!

Basketball, my favourite sport (I've never played it, a wonderful example of how on trend varsity clothes are being adopted by gloriously unfit girls across the country.)

Hope you enjoyed my insanely colourful outfit! What clothing items are you pulling from your wardrobe in preparation for Summer?

Wednesday, 5 June 2013

I'm not usually one for instigating new trends, but when it comes to matching your hair to your bag, it's a fashion statement that I take full credit for. Not that I think it really took off, but hey, it gives some sort of novelty to my outfit. This was my outfit for a super hot day in London (truly a rare occurrence) which gave me the perfect opportunity to debut my new dress, which is absolutely beautiful, with a watercolour effect to it which really stands out against my new hair. My purplish hair was an impulsive move, spurred on by my friend Sean's offer of a bleaching kit and the Directions pots gathering dust in the corner of my room, due to my own nervousness about dying my hair a sort of 'out there' colour. I used a mixture of Dark Tulip and Plum, both frantically applied to my hair after I had the dodgiest of all hair bleaching jobs. I absolutely love having purple hair that goes a little further than my usual tint, and it's nice to finally have that teenage phase I've so clearly lacked.

Dress - PrimarkBag - ZatchelsShoes - Primark

This dress is a surprise Primark buy. The minute I saw it I absolutely fell in love with it, and parted with my money (a relatively expensive £15 in Primark terms) immediately. I love how colourful it is, and the fabric itself feels lovely and light (perhaps a little too light, I had a very undignified Marilyn moment when taking these photos much to my photographer Sean's amusement). I paired it with my Zatchels bag again, as it has inevitably become a bit of a staple for me.

Are you considering dying your hair any crazy colours? And what dress are you most excited to wear this Summer?

Sunday, 2 June 2013

Despite living in London for almost two years, before today I had never ventured down to see one of East London's most famous markets. I've seen Brick Lane, Roman Road, and West London's Portobello Road, but I never quite reached Columbia Road Market, in East London's Bethnal Green. This is probably due to the fact that it is on a Sunday, a day exclusively reserved for lounging around in typical student style. Columbia Road is a flower market, but don't be put off if you're more of a vintage clothes fan, or just prone to hayfever, as the stalls are surrounded by many vintage/antique shops and cafes. It certainly doesn't feel like the rest of the East End when you enter the market, the whole place has an inherently boutiquey, 'yummy mummy' feel about it. That's not to say it's not a raucuous, slightly chaotic affair, especially if you rock up at the peak time of about one, where the sound of folky buskers and East End market traders makes for a gloriously authentic and enjoyable experience, if a little too cosy. My flatmate Luke and I had such a lovely time, I'll definitley be visiting again!

The market is so wonderfully colourful, no wonder it is a fashion blogger's dream!

This was the first outing of my Whitepepper dress, they're an East London brand, so pretty appropriate for a jaunt up Columbia Road. I've been salivating over their dresses for a while (not literally!) I teamed it with my new Zatchels bag, which I bought for 50% off in their recent birthday sale. It's absolutely beautiful, and it's lovely to finally find a pretty bag that fits my camera!